In 1980, Native American prisoner Rita Silk Nauni was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 150 years by an all-white jury in Oklahoma for the self-defense slaying of a policeman who had attacked her and her son.

Silk Nauni appealed, was temporarily freed on $100,000 bail, and then reincarcerated when her public defender decided he didn’t like the company she kept — a Black family — while free on bail. She currently awaits her appeal in “protective custody” at the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in Oklahoma.

Silk Nauni has been stripped of every constitutional right. Her son, Derek, has been taken from her. She is confined to her cell, denied the same access that other prisoners have to MBCC’s legal library, and subjected daily to the violence of male guards who openly beat the women prisoners. In addition, she, like other Native American prisoners, is denied the right to practice her religion.

Your help is desperately needed to get Rita Silk Nauni released! She needs money, letters of support, and stamps for correspondence. For further information, write: